Of guns and headphones
by de Razz
Summary: A uniform, a pair of headphones, mp3s, guns, cards and a already signed contract. That's what we got. But even if we know what's going to happen, how the hell do we change it? Minato x Nyx; Minako x Shinji; OC x Fuuka; OC x Ken; "I didn't sign up for this..."
1. Chapter 1

**1\. Package? Welcome to Iwatodai**

_Chris POV_

"And that's it for this LP guys and...yeah, Frosty is crying in the corner again. You know how emotional she is. Alright that's it for our Persona 3 LP. See ya guys around."

I stopped the recording and drank some water. I looked over to Luce who was sitting on my bed. Of course she didn't cry, but a tear really was running down her cheek. Well, I was a bit shaken myself, but I had more control over my feelings.

I leaned back in my chair. Frosty707 was Luce's username on youtube, while mine was Jackie707. We made LPs every so often, when school allowed us. Originally we didn't want to LP Persona 3, because none of us could stand the ending. Great, we still had to LP the answer for our viewers. I was so not looking forward to it, mainly because it was so fucking hard on the PS2 version.

I hate grinding. Personally I often fight bosses totally under leveled. Hey, it was a challenge and I won. Luce had way more stamina for grinding.

"Should we call it a day?" she asked. "We can upload tomorrow and I'm hungry."

"Again? You just ate a whole pizza during the boss fight." I pointed out. Whenever I was together with her, I was reminded of the fanfictions where the protagonists had bottomless stomachs. Luce was totally like them.

"Well, I'm up for some ice-cream." I said throwing the empty water bottle in the corner of my room. "Alrighty!" she cheered. It was a warm summer day and I opened up my vest. You can't trust the weather reporter anymore.

I used my vest as a belt and stretched my arms, while the two of us were heading towards the nearest ice café. We met a few people, but didn't stop for a conversation. Most people we knew were out of country and we were burning to crisps anyway in the sun.

There were a lot of people outside the café, so we decided to stay inside, where no one was sitting. We had our privacy and the air conditioning for once was working. The waiters and waitresses were busy outside, so it took a while until we could make our orders.

"So, the answer comes next?" Luce asked.

"Looks that way. Wouldn't make sense if we start another project now." I groaned at the thought. I had nothing against the game, but recording, rendering and not to forget the high upload times (although we used a converter) it all took a lot of time.

"I'll do the grinding then. But I think we should start a little side project." she suggested.

"Any ideas?"

"Yeah, how about Professor Layton against Ace Attorney?"

"You know I totally suck at those games. And I never played any Layton game. Well as long as you take the Layton game play, I'm fine."

"Hah, fine." Little not wanted insider. It wasn't funny or anything.

After the two of us got our ice, we shoved it down until our brains froze. We walked outside and went inside again. The same thing happened three times in a row, for each time we ordered something, so nine times in total.

We chatted alongside each other for some time, small talk, how it was supposed to rain today, how much school sucked, how we had no idea what to do after we finished school and all that crap.

We decided to walk back to my place, when the sun was finally settling down. Luce slept at my place over the weekend and my parents weren't there.

In front of my house was a package. It was addressed to me AND Luce, but it was brought to my place. Whatever, if it was a prank, no harm done as long as they don't overdo it.

Curiously we took it inside.

"What do you think is inside?" Luce asked.

"I go for the prank."

"I go for fan-post."

It was neither of those. "Uniforms?" Luce asked curiously.

"Not ANY uniform." I replied, because my stuff was already laid on my bed. "Gekkoukan uniforms."

"WHAT?! Cool~~!" Luce beamed at her own uniform. The two of us were stunned until we fell over in laughter.

"Ok, but seriously, how did they get my size? And who are they?"

"Who cares? Let's put them on!" She was already heading for the bathroom. I shook my head amused and changed into it. It totally fit and was very comfortable.

About a minute after I changed Luce came into my room, holding a card in her hand. She looked at it curiously. I took a peak. It was empty.

"Where did you get that?" I asked.

"It was in my uniform." she answered. I grabbed into my pocket and found a card, empty like Luce's. When I flipped it, another surprise waited for me: it was the back like in the persona games.

"Cool. Hey there's more in the package, let's have a look."

The next things were rather disturbing: guns. Like REAL guns. We knew how to handle them, since my uncle trained us regularly with those things. He's in the army.

"Okay...this is scary." I commented. A part of me was scared, while the other part was eager to try that thing out. I looked at Luce, who was totally excited about this. I could see it in her eyes. I tried to be the voice of reasoning.

"So, why does someone send us Gekkoukan Uniforms, empty persona cards and real guns-"

"And mp3!" Luce cheered. "Mp3?" I echoed.

Well, there were two mp3s inside, each a pair of headphones connected. Luce's were pink, while mine were black. There was a button on the ride side, which shouldn't be there.

We put them on and she tested the button.

"Nothing's happening."

"Whoa!" I exclaimed.

"Huh?"

"Those things are like Walkie-talkies. Here check it out!"

We played a bit with them.

"Uh...Chris? Is your favorite music also on your mp3?"

"W-h-a-t?"

This was getting more and more ridiculous. Along with my favorite bands, there was the original soundtrack of all persona games.

"Is this the time I should freak out?" I asked. "No, there's still this piece of paper inside. Don't worry, it's the last thing."

"Why do I have the feeling I already know what it is?"

"It is a contract. 'I chooseth this path of my own free will. Signed: Luce van Doom and Chris Hammer.' Urrgh, van Doom, I really need to change my last name."

"Your last name isn't the issue here. This is either a pretty good prank or we're fucked up."

"I think...I'll go for fucked up. These are our handwritings."

"What!?" I snatched the paper out of her hand. No shit, I'd recognize my handwriting everywhere. Luce's handwriting I've seen often enough to recognize it. We were best buds after all.

"I'm ready to shoot myself. Where's the camera?" I asked aloud. Of course there was no camera. We checked everything, but found nothing and we didn't leave for long enough, so the cameras could be hidden that well.

"Maybe their watching from outside?" Luce suggested, but I could hear the doubt in her voice. There was this feeling nagging at our chest and it kept increasing. It was already dark outside, almost a full moon.

We both sat in my room, looking down at the contract as if we would expect something to happen. I took a peak at my watch.

"It's almost midnight."

"Yeah, hehe, it's like we're waiting for the dark hour or something." she chuckled. "So, why are we sitting here?" she asked.

"I don't-"

The clock struck twelve. I knew it, since I was looking at it. I passed out along with Luce. This was our last day on the 'real world'.

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When I woke up, I was sitting on a train seat. _Okay, keep calm, keep calm, and don't scream anything._

Luce was sitting in front of me and franticly looking around, like me. Our gazes met each other and the two of us wanted to speak at the same time, but we stopped, pointing the finger at each other.

"You first." I said.

"Uhhh, your hair is black and your eyes are yellow."

What?! I had brown hair and blue eyes. Oh well, Luce would be surprised as well.

"Your hair is pink and your eyes are red."

She looked at me dumbfounded, before checking her ponytail. "Cool~!"

Oh Luce, it's always the same with you. She inspected her hair, while I inspected my pockets. The card was still in there. I couldn't find the gun. Just when I thought about it, it appeared in a flash of light in my hands.

Luce jumped a little but didn't scream. Oh well, we were alone in the waggon. I thought three things in the following: cool, ammo, disappear.

First nothing happened, second a new magazine appeared in my hand and third everything was gone.

"Holy-"  
"-fucking-"  
"-madness."

We sat there a few seconds, before we laughed our asses off. The whole situation was just so hilarious, we thought we were high.

"Wow, check this out!" She pointed outside the window. We could see the lights of a city outside, while we rode the train.

"Luce, we're heading-"  
"-to Iwatodai."

We looked at each other and just stared. Our brains tried to comprehend the whole situation, but it was simply crazy this all could be true. Yet the two of us couldn't be dreaming the same thing, right?

By all the fuss ongoing, we totally missed the announcement. I just heard the word Iwatodai and became alarmed.

"We don't have any stuff here, right?" I asked. Luce checked, but found nothing. So we headed outside empty handed. We walked out of the train station. It was surprisingly empty. We looked at a clock and saw it was 11:00.

We sat down on a bench and discussed the situation.

"'I chooseth this path of my own free will.' We're not taking their roles, are we?" Luce asked me. Urgh, that one got me worried too. "I'm not sure, but honestly I hope not. It's still an hour until midnight. Let's wait and see if they will arrive. If so, we'll look for a way to help them. If not, let's kill the chairman and then ourselves."

"Why ourselves?"

"I wanna see if we can summon our personas not only through the cards, but the guns."

She snipped her fingers. "Let's try our personas now and get the hang of summoning them."

"Now? What if someone sees us?" I asked. She shrugged. "So what?"

I laughed. She was always a bit risky. "Okay, ladies first."

The two of us stood up and took some distance from one and another. Luce took out a card and stared at it. Right, none of us knew how to channel sp.

"..."

"...*yawn*."

I decided to think for myself, so we at least would both be able to do something. And so we stared and stared and stared until a flash of light hit my eyes. Looking up, I saw the card floating in her hand, blue mist surrounding it.

"VARNANI!" she shouted, crushing the card in the process. Varnani was a demon from Digital Devil Saga 2.

As she looked down at me, I felt something inside me. "VARNA!" I shouted and crushed the card, not noticing it had been circling in my hand. I felt my personas presence behind me.

Information flooded into my brain and I got a light headache. I could see the same happened to Luce, judging from her expression.

"No weakness?" I asked.

"No strength?" Luce asked.

In case you don't know in the Digital Devil Saga Games Varna or Varuna (use the latter name if you want to look in Wikipedia) and Varnani had ice resistances and fire weaknesses, yet our personas had none of it. We had ice spells though. There was another information in my mind or probably our minds.

We needed some time to figure things out. Luce summarized everything:

"Our personas level up pretty normal. We have the mantra grid from DDS 2 in order to learn new skills. We know in those games you need to devour enemies to learn new skills. You chose a category from the grid and devour enemies until the bar is full, so you learn those skills. So far we have ice spirit full, which gives us bufu and void ice, a spell that blocks one ice attack, but the shield is temporarily. We need to find out how temporarily. Our current mantra we're leveling is devourer, which gives us devour, a physical attack with which we can eat enemies, so one of us gets more mantra points and ingest mana, which allows us to recover mana by devouring enemies. In order to change our mantra, we need to summon our cards, but it will cost us yen to download a new one. And so far we have nothing in our pockets. (Note: in the game, you trade dollars)."

I took a look at the grid. Instead of changing the 1000 dollars into 10000 yen, it is only 1000 yen. With the random money from Tartarus, we would be able to buy at least the stuff we would need. Completing the whole grid was out of question, especially when later categories needed more time to get completed.

For example Ice Spirit and Devourer were difficulty level 1. Dark Lord, which gives you a null element shield, was difficulty level 8. The highest were 9.

It took us quite some time until we gathered our thoughts. The next train arrived by then and only two passengers went out.

"Let's go ahead a little." I whispered. Luce nodded and we went outside the train station, where we realized, we didn't know where the dorm was.

"Seems like we have to follow them." Luce said. It was then that the dark hour struck in. We were totally taken off guard and looked around in shock, until our gaze met the big yellow moon.

"Wow."

"Wish I could make a photo." Luce pouted a little.

"You can always ask-"

"You two, look out!" we heard a girl scream. We looked behind us and saw the female protagonist and the other one. The girl pointed in front of us!

We turned around again and found the first of the maya shadows approaching. "This is it. If we don't beat those guys, we're officially lame." I smirked.

"Let's kick some ass!" Luce shouted, summoning her gun. I did the same. Everything of that gun felt the same, like the one my uncle gave us to practice. We never practiced on moving targets, but those guys were pretty slow, even at top speed.

Each of us gave a few shots and the shadows were done.

We looked at each other and grinned. "Hell yeah!" We high fived each other.

Turning around we found the male protagonist standing protectively in front of the girl.

"Calm down, we're not gonna shoot you guys." Luce said, grinning. "Yeah, we're just sadistic shadow killers." I told them. Sadistic was good. I really enjoyed it. I knew it had been shadows, but even they were living beings. I felt a mixture of satisfaction and sickness of feeling good killing things.

"W-what did you do!?" shouted the girl! "Where did you get the guns?!" she asked.

"Package." we both answered. Hey it was the truth. I waved off. "Anyways, this place doesn't look save. We'll escort you to your destination, just in case." I said.

"Shadows shouldn't be underestimated. Those a second ago were their weakest form." Luce continued. "I'm Luce, by the way. And this is Chris."

"'Sup."

"Now, we know you have a lot of questions probably, but we should get you to your destination. We can talk tomorrow."

"Okay..." the red eyed girl replied. "I'm Minako by the way. This is my brother Minato. He doesn't talk much...hehe..."

"Can see that. By the way, we just arrived here an hour ago ourselves. Do you guys have a map?" I asked. Minako nodded and took out a map, pointing where the SEES dorm was.

"Okay, let's get going."

We walked for a few minutes, only to encounter a bunch of Mayas. We shoot until our guns were empty. We simply summoned new ammo.

"H-how...?!" Minako asked. "Tomorrow. We need to keep going." Luce said.

We came across some little shops and restaurants. Well as to be expected there was a lot more, than in the actual game. By the way, the shadows always dropped a few yen notes, so our pockets got stuffed.

"At this rate, we're gonna be rich in no time." Luce commented.

"You forget we still need to buy a lot of stuff." I pointed out. "What's with the coffins?" Minako asked.

"First time experiencing this?" I asked. She nodded.

"This is the dark hour, a 25th hidden hour. Those coffins are people, sleeping inside. No electricity works, the reason I don't fly with planes anymore."

Luce took over. "Those things we fought earlier are called shadows. Everyone outside of their coffin becomes one of the lost, when they prey on you. Have you heard of the apathy syndrome?" she asked. The twins nodded.

I took over. "Basically you get mind-fucked. The reason the two of us are normal is because we're persona users."

"Persona...?" she asked.

"Oh, oh. Chris, here they come!"

Another group of shadows was approaching. Only two.

"Let's try our personas. Varnani!" She killed the first one with a simple bufu spell.

"Varna!" I finished the second one.

Minako looked amazed, while her brother kept his expression. He didn't seem to trust us, I couldn't really blame him. "We're not too far away anymore, are we?" Luce asked. I took a look at the map and nodded.

"Just around the corner."

We walked the road down and to the left. Yup, there it was, unmistakingly the SEES dorm.

"Wow, looks like a horror mansion in this light." Luce said, checking everything on the dorm. I had to agree in the light of the dark hour it really looked that way.

"Maybe they stole it from Silent Hill. Hey Luce, since we're here, do you think..."

"I'm not planning on going there. Although, I'd die to meet her." she said smiling. "What are you talking about?" Minako asked.

"Nothing." we replied simultaneously, "Okay, we're here. So-"

"That's SO typical!" Luce shouted. I turned around and saw one of those wrestler shadows, but didn't recognize the type.

"Oh crap. You two get inside! We'll deal with him!" I shouted.

"Varnani!" Luce used a bufu, which did not much. The shadow laughed. I shoot a few times, but it was even less effective. The shadow charged pretty obviously, so we jumped out of the way.

"We'll need a thousand bullets for that thing!" she complained.

Suddenly time was frozen. Pharos appeared in front of us.

"Uhh, hi?"

"KYAAAAAAAA!"

"Keep your fangirl down!"

"But he's so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!"

It was going through with her again. As if it wasn't annoying enough during our LPs. Pharos giggled at our antics. "Hold them at each other's temples and shoot."

He disappeared and time was flowing again. We almost got smashed by the shadow, but luckily it hit the wall. "Let's do it."

"You owe me if we die." I said. It was totally crazy, but we already landed in another world, so why shouldn't it work. We held each other a gun at the head and shot.

"CHAOS WAVE!" we shouted. A large, circling cloud appeared in the sky and a black, white, grey energy beam hit the ground unleashing a wave with the same color in every direction. The shadow was dead and the last thing I heard was the sound of a door being opened.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey guys, how do you like it so far? I should mention again, I'm using the mantra grid from Digital Devil Saga 2. I downloaded it and I'll try to keep following the rules of it, If you don't follow, I recommend downloading it. It's a nice picture too and if you have the actual game, it could help you. Alright thanks for the follows and the one review (should I sweatdrop?). I hope I can keep it up. This chapter may be not as good as the first and maybe things come a bit rushed. It was hard and I wrote it over 5 times. (different POVs until I got the right ones)**

**2\. The first full moon? At least we're in.**

_General POV_

Everyone was gathered in the Command Room, waiting for the two hopefully new recruits to arrive. The Arisato twins had been informed and were ready to aid SEES in their goal, especially after they'd been rescued by two strangers.

There was however one unnerving thing about the strangers: they had no identity whatsoever. No papers, no photos, nothing and the Kirijo Group searched worldwide. This fact alone got the head of the Kirijo Group, Mitsuru's father, interested in the two.

The two were being driven by car by two employees. Mitsuru looked at her watch. She was getting a little impatient. The traffic must-

"I dunno, it feels like we're going to our own funeral." Everyone turned towards the door. "It's not like we have a choice." a female voice answered the male voice.

The door opened and the two stepped in slowly. Everyone noticed the similar headphones hanging from their necks. They were like the ones the Arisatos owned, only in different colors. The chairman spoke up.

"Welcome, my name is Shuji Ikutsuki. These here are Mitsuru Kirijo, Akihiko Sanada, Yukari Takeba and I belief you already met Minako and Minato Arisato."

The two nodded. "I'm Chris Hammer. This is Luce van Doom. Yeah that's her last name."

Luce groaned. "I SERIOUSLY need to change my name."

"Well, that would be hard. After all, you two didn't even exist until a few days ago." the chairman said.

"Told you, funeral." Chris deadpanned. "Why don't you two take a seat, then we'll talk?"

The two did as they were told, cautiously eyeing everyone. Their gazes hardened as they rested on the man in the suit. "Don't get me wrong, we're grateful for what you've done."

_Yeah, right._

"However, we cannot ignore this fact. Care to elaborate?"

"It doesn't matter what we say."  
"Since we have no papers, there's no way we can verify our story."  
"So, we've thought of something."  
"We will help you out-"  
"-and you won't press on our past."

"This is-!" Mitsuru began, but the chairman held a hand in front of her. "You seem awfully confident. What makes you think, we need your help."

The two grinned and summoned their guns, scaring the shit out of everyone. The chairman hid behind his sofa.

"Let me make one thing clear:" Chris began. "If we wanted you dead, we could have shot you guys already." they let their guns disappear. Everyone else was still on edge and Ikutsuki came slowly out of his hiding spot.

"You asked what make us think you'd need our help, right?" Luce summoned her card in her hand. "Have a look at this." Instead of crushing the card, it flew a bit away and the Mantra Grid appeared.

"Wow." Minako said. Minato had an eyebrow raised. "Whoa!" Akihiko exclaimed. "What is this?" Yukari asked.

"This is the mantra grid. It'll take a while explaining. Can you guys come around? It'll be easier that way."

Slowly but steadily everyone gathered around, while Chris opened his own grid.

"Alright, basically the mantra grid allows us to teach our personas new skills. Sounds simple? It is not. You see those two mantras? Their called Ice Spirit and Devourer. Ice Spirit taught my personas bufu and void ice, while Devourer taught it devour and ingest mana. I'll come to the skills later. Now, let's open up Protection. This here is the list of skills my persona can learn. Dia, analyze and patra. By the way, analyze only works on weaker shadows. Any questions so far?"

Everyone was awed. Luce waited patiently for them to snap out of it. Akihiko was the first one and pointed at the star. "What does that mean?"

"The amount of shadows I need to kill. The stronger the shadows the faster it gets. Of course, more stars means I need to kill more shadows."

"1000 yen?" Minako questioned. "Yeah, don't ask how it works, but in order to get the mantra, I need to pay 1000 yen. Isn't there a clock inside Tartarus, that heals you when you pay money?"

"You have been in Tartarus?!" Mitsuru asked.

"We sneaked out the other day, but only went into the lobby (and didn't get a chance to enter the Velvet Room. We couldn't open it and knocking didn't help.)"

Luce went out and the whole grid could be seen again. "These mantras here, I still need to unlock by mastering one of the mantras next to them. And these things with the black points inside them, can only be unlocked by learning all mantras around them. By the way, I can learn the left half and Chris the other, the mantra would be still unlocked. That sums it up. Do you have any new questions?" Luce asked.

"You wanted to explain those two skills." Mitsuru pointed out. Chris took over.

"Devour allows our personas, as the name says, to devour an enemy." Yukari ran out of the room, probably heading for the toilet, imagining a shadow being devoured. Luce and Chris sweatdropped.

"I'll go on without her, 'kay? Ingest mana gives us spiritual energy back, if we successfully devour an enemy. By the way, by devouring enemies, the gauge down here fills itself faster. I think they're called atma points. The whole thing has a side effect. If our personas eat too many enemies, they and we, the users, get literally a stomach ache."

Ikutsuki was the next one to go. "Two down, four to go!" Luce and Chris high fived each other.

"When we have a stomach ache, we cannot proceed on any mantra. We need to sit it out or take some medecine. One last thing: our personas are limited in using eight skills at once. Changing them takes some time and we need orders BEFORE we're caught up in battle. Any last questions?"

"Where did you get this power?" Mitsuru asked.

"Honestly? We want to know that ourselves. We know everyone should be able to awaken to a persona, but the mantra grid? When we awakened to our personas, the whole stuff we told you just flooded into our heads. On this one you have to belief us, that we have no idea. Meh, there's a greater power out there than this."

Everyone looked at them shocked. "A greater power? What kind of power!?" Mitsuru demanded to know. Luce took over: "The wild card ability. The ability to change between personas. Personally I'd prefer that over the mantra grid. You'd have more skills available at once, not like us. We need to change them every time.

Alright, I'll go with Protection (dia, analyze, patra). And you?" Luce asked Chris.

"Am still looking. God I want so much and I only have 2000 yen. Is Fire Spirit cool with you (agi, void fire)?"

Luce nodded and Chris took it, money literally vanishing into thin air. After letting the grid and the cards disappear the two stood up, facing the group of four in front of them.

"So, we either join under the conditions we stated-"  
"-or we'll leave now. Your choice."

Despite their poker faces, the two otherworlders where as nervous as hell. After waking up in hospital, the two discussed whether they should come up with something or not. Seeing as none of them had a Velvet Room dream, they snuck out the day they woke up and made their way to Tartarus, this time without any shadow encounter.

They had seen the Velvet Room door, but as earlier said, didn't come in. Disappointed they walked back to the hospital and called it a night. The next morning, they heard they would be brought to the SEES dorm.

"Sempai..." Minako looked worried towards Mitsuru. As much as she wanted the two that saved her life and that of her brother on the team, in the end it was Mitsuru's decision. Said girl's expression was unreadable as she was lost in thought.

She finally looked up, straight at the two. "Your guns, hand them over."

The two gave each other a look before shrugging. As expected, as soon as Mitsuru held them in her hands, the weapons disappeared.

"What?"

"Hey, we don't know how that works either. We got them, after we awakened to our personas."

Mitsuru was frustrated. Having two persona users on the loose, who not only had great potential, but could summon guns at will, according to the twins summoning ammo as well, was a great threat to the people outside. It would be better to keep an eye on them, yet they were a threat to SEES as well, since she couldn't confiscate the guns. Mitsuru even considered giving them the pills.

"If this goes on, I'm gonna blow up." Chris muttered looking to the side.

Luce played with her hair, nervously, still awed it was pink now. "How long are Yukari and that guy in the bathroom?" she asked Chris. He looked at his watch.

"Ten minutes. Okay, I know the whole devouring stuff is disturbing, but this?"

"Well, if you imagine, when we get a stomach ache, we could gross out shadows..."

"Wow, now I'm disturbed and at the same time I'm looking forward to it."

Mitsuru let out a sigh and looked up. "I trust you two won't abuse your powers. I'm only allowing this because you helped the Arisatos. I'll show you your rooms."

"Hey, mind if we test out something?" the yellow eyed boy asked. "What?" the heiress asked. "Don't worry, it's nothing dangerous. You take the time?" he asked and Luce nodded, making her watch ready. "Any time you want." she said, looking at her watch.

"What are you two doing?" Akihiko asked. "You'll see. Persona!" Chris casted void ice, a white aura surrounding him. Luce was still looking at her watch, while the others recovered from their shock.

"Stop." he said when the white aura was gone.

"Thirty seconds."

Chris crossed his arms, looking down at them. "That's not long. We have to learn every enemies pattern."

"What was that all about?" Mitsuru asked.

"I casted an anti-ice shield. We wanted to look how long it lasts. *sigh* Not very long. At least shields don't take much energy and can be used on all at once. But they only take one hit."

"Hey, how can you two summon outside the dark hour?" Akihiko asked.

"You can't?" The two asked back.

Mitsuru suppressed a groan. Their new recruits were even stronger, than she thought. She just hoped the two would be loyal to SEES.

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_Luce POV_

After Mitsuru showed me my room, she and Chris left. First things first, I let out a deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep sigh. It was pure poker to admit we had no papers and hope they would just take us, since we're persona users. Oh man, I thought us three times done.

I fell onto my new bed, oh it was soooooooooo comfortable.

Mitsuru promised us to get some clothes and regular stuff we needed. She also would get us a place in school.

I groaned, when I realized something: the magician was about to attack and we already changed one big thing. It was necessary for them to awaken now, so they wouldn't get unconscious during a Tartarus trip.

Not to mention, no one knows what the magician was really capable off. Well duh, fire spells, but we had no anti fire shield. Since that thing was a part of Nyx, it had no weakness, most likely.

"Oh man Nyx, what are we gonna do about her? Oh hey, that gives me an idea." No idea to stop her, but to screw around. I looked around and found pen and paper inside my study desk.

"Let's see. It's been a while since I drew something..."

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Downstairs, I found everyone else, including Chris gathered, watching TV. There was a report about new and more apathy syndrome victims, the reason we couldn't let the twelve big shadows live.

I placed myself next to Minako, laid my drawing on the table, so everyone was able to look at it. After the report ended, Chris took a look. "Still as good as ever. Why did you draw Nyx?" he asked.

Everyone's attention, especially the chairman's was on the paper, which was lying on the table. It was a perfect sketch of her battle position during the last boss fight, including the sword. It was hard to draw the feathers and the little details of her clothes. The crown had been the hardest part. Seriously I hated the crown. It looked like shit.

"Well Tartarus is supposed to be the home of Nyx, Hades and a bunch of fellas. So I felt like it." I said shrugging.

"She's beautiful..."

That was the first time Minato said something in three months as I found out later from Minako. Chris and I laughed, remembering the fanfics pairing those two together.

"What's so funny?" Minako asked.

"Insider." we replied. "If you want, you can keep it." I told him. He took the picture and went to his room. Chris and I burst out in laughter.

"Yo, paint Erebus, maybe Minako will react the same way. Damn it, I am sugar high!"

"You had sweets? Where?!" I demanded. "I ate the rest."

"DIE!"

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Since the shadow would attack tonight, I decided to stay up and draw a bunch of stuff. I was sitting outside at one of the vending machines. At one point Chris joined on the girl's floor, quietly placing him beside me. He liked to watch me drawing.

He looked through a few of my earlier drawings. I made some extra Nyx drawings for Minato. I so wanted to see that one reaction from him again. Mitsuru found us that way at some point.

"I know it will take a while until I can get you a place in school, but you two should sleep anyway."

"Can't sleep. We really thought you'd kill us at some points." Chris chuckled. "Thanks for trusting us. We know it must be hard, with our guns and all and-"

He didn't get further as the dark hour started.

"Damn, this late already? *gasp*!"

I dropped pen and paper, grabbing my chest, as breathing became heavier all of the sudden. The same happened to Chris. Mitsuru ran to us.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I...don't know. I-" Chris panted.

"Shadow!" I realized. "I can feel it. Death...no not death but..." finally the feeling was gone and the two of us leaned back.

"Are you alright?" Mitsuru asked.

"We sensed...a shadow...but-"  
"-we don't have any...analyzing...abilities..."

I stood up shaking my head. "We can figure this out later. A shadow is attacking, I just know it, let's wake up the others."

"Follow me." Mitsuru ran upstairs and we followed. She used her own abilities and a bunch of equipment I didn't recognized until she gasped.

"You're right! A shadow is coming towards this dorm!" She smashed the alarm button, activating an annoying sound. After a few minutes everyone was gathered. "What's wrong?" Minako asked. I just noticed Akihiko was missing.

"A strong shadow is approaching. Get-"

The whole dorm shook at that point.

"Whoa!"

"Someone's knocking at the door." Chris said dryly. Instinctively we summoned our guns. The whole dorm was shaking in regular intervalls.

"What's happening?" Yukari asked/shrieked.

"It's climbing towards the roof!" I realized and ran ahead. The others followed me a second later. The moon was staring down at us and I really had the feeling Nyx was watching us. "There it is!" Minako exclaimed. I looked ahead and the Magician was climbing up the wall like in the game.

First the mask looking around and then little by little the rest. Suddenly Mitsuru touched her ear. "Akihiko is downstairs, injured, but save. We need to focus on the enemy." she told us.

The Magician stared down at us. I gulped. That thing WAS big and either it was my imagination or it had more arms than in the actual game.

"Varna!" Chris reacted first, casting a bufu, but not doing much. To our surprise the shadow mind charged.

"Oh fuck! Varnani!" I casted my own bufu, but that thing wouldn't even flinch.

"Persona!" the twins shouted. Here it goes.

The two personas stopped mid-air, clutching their heads. Suddenly they burst open and two shadows came out and fused together, letting Thanatos appear.

"Wow..." I said.

Remember how I said the Magician used mind charge? Well, since Chris and I were the only ones who attacked, it thought we were the only threat and used a fucking maragidyne on us!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

The heat struck me all of the sudden and I was thankful when I blacked out for the second time in my life. In that second I'd been hit with the spell, I thought my whole skin burned, through my veins flowed lava instead of blood and every other liquid inside me was cooking.

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_Mitsuru POV_

Why didn't I help them? Why didn't I attack the shadow, like Hammer and Doom were doing? Those questions were haunting me at that time. The Arisato twins did help them and awakened to the power the other two mentioned beforehand: the wild card.

It came at a price though. After their new persona defeated the shadow, the two lost consciousness. Chris and Luce already lost it, when they were attacked. Somehow they were able to track the shadow, but were surprised as well.

I shook my head clear. This was not the time thinking about powers. The twins were out due to awakening to their power.

"Come on, wake up!" Takeba tried to shake the twins awake, but failed.

The other two were out, due to the damage they'd taken. I tried my dia spells, but they didn't work properly.

"What happened?"

I turned my head and saw Akihiko supporting against the doorframe. "Doom and Hammer are seriously injured. The twins awakened and lost consciousness."

"Damn it, it's all my fault! If only I wouldn't have gone out on my own!" he cursed. Takeba started crying. "I'm so useless. I should have done something and was too afraid to do anything."

She shouldn't blame herself. We should have trained summoning personas beforehand. What's done was done. We had to keep the new recruits alive and call an ambulance as soon as the dark hour ended.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks for the advice dear Guest. Well I personally thought I'd been too fast. I'm still not sure, when I should add Nyx, since I announced the Minato x Nyx pairing. I hope I won't act too rashly like my cousin tends to (JackFrostDoll by the way). Alright, I hope I can meet all your expactations. Sorry, but this chapter is really lame, might as well skip it.**

**3\. Answers? This is the Velvet Room we're talking about!**

_Chris POV_

I felt like I'd been thrown into a volcano. "This isn't a dream. I'm sure of it now." I muttered still oblivious to my surroundings. "Yeah..." Luce muttered. "This ain't a game. Our lives are on the line." she said.

We were both still a little shocked, I mean hell: I almost died! Falling unconscious is one thing, if it is due to being transported or because of exhaustion. But being at the verge of death oh man, that was something else.

A chuckle brought me out of my thoughts. We both looked up and found the long nose man, the one we've been looking for the other day.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room. I apologize I haven't had the time for you two." This grin was downright creepy. Shadows don't look that scary. Maybe he really knew Frankenstein himself?

"Well, you know the term, better late than never." Luce said, checking her skin, probably for burns. It was either a miracle our skin was untouched. "Mind charge and maragidyne. I guess we're lucky our personas don't have the natural fire weakness." I mumbled.

We looked at Igor who looked at us back. I sighed. "Since we know this rooms purpose, do you mind if we ask you some questions?"

"Of course not. I am here to assist you after all."

Luce started. "The contract, none of us remembers signing it. You didn't fake our handwritings, right?"

Igor shook his head. "You signed the contract of your own free will, fully aware of the consequences it might bring upon yourselves. It seems you have simply forgotten."

"Right...I kind of expected that..."

It was my turn. "Why us? What's so special about us?"

His grin widened. "You already know the answer to this question yourselves. But it is not as simple as it seems."

"Okay...?"

Luce' turn. "Why the mantra grid? Why don't learn our persona skills the normal way?"

He chuckled, always a bad sign. "That I cannot answer. You will find out eventually."

Now that dropped the mood. I felt like giving up, but there were some things that still need to be questioned. "Are we ever getting the chance to go back?" Hey as much fun and all this was, we had friends and family back there. I wished the next answer had been cryptic too.

"No, unfortunately not."

As if the mood hasn't been low enough a second ago. I dropped all my other questions, I was mentally done for.

Luce asked the last and most important question. "Can we change anything **for the better?" **she emphasized the last part, probably hoping to get a straight answer.

"This depends all on you and the actions you chose. Well then, time marches on in your world. Until we meet again."

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From a scale from 1 to 10, Igor officially reached annoying level 100. The idiot forgot to give us the Velvet Key. Despite being awake, I kept my eyes closed, letting reality sinking into me. First our lives really were in danger, that much I was aware now. Second, I'd never see my family again, no matter what.

Great, just great. I'd get the one responsible for that and if it was all Igor's doing, the guy would get a beat down that was for sure. I didn't care how much power he was supposed to have, I was mad and blamed him for all of it, even if it was unfair.

I forgot to ask why we could sense the shadow and even tell the exact location, even if we wouldn't have knowledge about it.

"Hey Chris." I opened my eyes, as Luce called my name. I could see she was giving her best to hide her feelings. I gave her a reassuring smile. "What's up?" I asked.

We were inside a hospital room. The light that came out of the window was blinding me. Everything was plane white and it smelled like disinfectants.

"Let's grab some grub." she announced.

I almost fell off my hospital bed. When something was wrong, eat and you'll feel better. That was her police and once she thought that way, there was no way to stop her and before she started any trouble, I decided to go with her.

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_Minako POV_

Minato and I had been released from hospital after a week. However Chris and Luce were still in there and it was the eleventh day. We had to do the first operation without them. If only we'd have summoned our personas earlier.

Minato put a hand on my shoulder, seeing my uneasiness. I was sitting in the living room of the dorm, trying to read a book. My brother smiled at me. He didn't talk much, but I learned to read his gestures.

He said: "Don't worry, they'll be fine."

"I hope you're right." I replied. He placed himself next to me and gave me a hug, trying to comfort me. I closed my eyes for a few seconds. Ever since our parents died, we had no one but ourselves to comfort each other.

His stomach growled all of the sudden. I laughed and stood up. "Let's go to Hagakure." I said. He nodded and followed me swiftly. The weather was better compared to the last days. The rain had stopped, but it still smelled a little wet.

I liked rain: it was always so refreshing and lightened up my mood.

When we arrived at the strip mall, a surprise was waiting for us: Luce and Chris were standing at the bus station.

"We ain't have the money to eat and I doubt we have the money for two tickets." Chris said counting his money silently.

"Hey!" I waved my hand. The two looked up surprised to see us. We walked towards them.

"We didn't know you two were released." I said, smiling. Minato nodded his expression a bit brighter than usual.

"We just dismissed ourselves." the pink haired girl said cheerfully. Chris rolled his scary eyes. "When that gal gets hungry, there's no way in stopping her. Too bad she forgot we're almost broke."

I got a little confused. Didn't the two plan ahead, when they were hunting shadows? But then again we knew nothing about them. Something might have happened and I knew how it was hiding something terrible.

"Hey, we owe you anyway from helping us. Let's all get some ramen!" I said as cheerful as possible. Luce's eyes lit up and Chris smiled a little guilty. "You're going to regret it. That girl has a black hole in her stomach."

"So do we." I replied. Chris almost fell over. We all laughed.

We entered Hagakure Ramen, which was surprisingly empty for a Sunday. We placed ourselves somewhere we could face each other. Chris and Luce studied the menu, like it was an interesting novel.

"Dang..." Chris muttered.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

Luce shook her head. "Just our first time at a ramen place. We can't decide."

"What?"

"We haven't been for long in Japan." she explained. Neither of them answered more of our questions, considering we asked about their past. They said they wouldn't tell anything about it, if we want their help.

In the end Chris picked something with a lot of hard noodles and Luce took the normal thing times 10. Chris had been right she had a black hole in the stomach, like we did.

We enjoyed our orders, before I tried to start a conversation. "So, how are you feeling?" I asked. "Better." both replied. "Especially now that I got something in my stomach." Luce smiled. "11 day without food." she shivered. "Never again."

"Haha, I feel you. How long have you been doing this?" I asked.

"Mina-sis, we told you we won't tell you." she said sternly. "We have our reasons to hide all those things, so please bear with us."

I sighed. At this rate I won't be able to make a useful conversation. "As long as they're hiding things" Minato whispered all of the sudden "I doubt we'll be able to make a social link with them."

Well, I didn't expect them to tell us all their secrets, but they could at least tell us something. Why did they always become alarmed I asked about their past?

"Can't you tell us something about you?" I asked. The two looked at each other and nodded. "Well, we like doing let's plays." Chris said.

"Let's plays?" I asked.

"You play a game, comment on it and record everything. It is a lot of fun and sometimes pure hilarity comes out."

"Like the one time your cat meowed in the microphone until we gave her something to eat." Chris said shaking his head at the memory. Now we were getting somewhere.

"Too bad we don't have our accounts anymore. Now we can do it all over again." Luce said. That was right: the two didn't have any papers. But from the sound of it, they did have papers at some point.

I wondered about them. How did they lose their whole identity just like that? Why were they wearing Gekkoukan Uniforms? Did they want to snuck into school in order to pretend to be normal students?

I shouldn't bother with it too much. They did save our lives and that was all that counted. Afterwards we shared our likes and dislikes and grew a little accustomed. Of course the two liked video games, but they also like sleeping in the sun, animals and being crazy, whatever that meant.

We walked back towards the dorm a little while later. We chatted on the way, trivial stuff until we arrived back.

"WHERE HAVE YOU TWO BEEN!?" shouted a very angry Mitsuru sempai at the two. They looked a little nervous at each other before grinning at sempai.

"Well, we were hungry..."

"You two have been unconscious for eleven days! Are you crazy, leaving the hospital just like this after getting severely injured!?"

Minato motioned me to leave and we snuck away. I watched everything from the kitchen. "Well, we're ...well." Chris shrugged. "What are you complaining anyways?" he asked.

"Yeah, why are you concerned all of the sudden?" Luce asked.

"You two..." she growled and I felt the temperature dropping.

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_Luce POV_

Something was off with her attitude. Sure we knew she'd be angry if we just leave the hospital, but why did she mention our health? Shouldn't she be more concerned with us doing something stupid?

"Don't you care about yourselves at all?" she asked. "Of course we do, but what is live without risk? What are you getting at anyway?" I asked.

She sighed. "Never mind."

I titled my head. "First you're angry and now this? You're not making any sense."

"In your room, you'll find some clothes, as well as all you need for school. The Arisato's will show you the way tomorrow. Don't be late or I'll execute you."

She left us standing dumbfounded. "What was that all about?" Chris asked. "I dunno. I'm gonna heck out my stuff. See you tomorrow." It was late anyway.

The clothes Kirijo bought were pretty good, but simple. Well at least she didn't buy formal clothes, so everything was fine. I had a few new school uniforms as well. Good, this one I was wearing needed to be washed anyway.

The next issue was to get rid of the camera. It was pretty easy to find, hidden behind my shelf at the corner of the ceiling. I snatched out the cable and the red light was out. I decided to study a little classic literature afterwards, since neither I nor Chris had the smallest idea what this subject was about from the very beginning.

I gave up after five minutes. My stomach growled yet again and I decided to see if I could make me a sandwich. I found Mitsuru in the kitchen, drinking some coffee. "Hey, Mitsu-sis" her eyebrow twitched at the nickname "do you have enough stuff, so I can make me a sandwich?" I asked.

She motioned towards the fridge. "Thanks! Wow, you guys got more, than I had back at home. My little sis would always eat the marmalade." I let out a sigh. I just managed to depress myself.

"God, I miss that hyperactive little brat." I laughed. Mitsuru was watching me the whole time. I just noticed she had some kind of file lying on the desk. Who knows what it was? I didn't bother myself with other people's business.

"Doom" right in Japan it's formal to call someone by their last name. "I wanted to apologize."

"For what?" I asked the red head. "Despite you two barely knowing us, you risked your lives the night the shadow attacked, while I was just watching." she explained. I waved off.

"Forget it. You got us a home, clothes and food. Do you know in how much trouble we would have been, if you wouldn't let us stay here? Heck I don't wanna rob a bank." I stuffed my sandwich into mouth.

"We told you fire power in exchange for a place to stay." I said.

Mitsuru looked at the file again and sighed. "I see."

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_General POV_

The two otherworldlers were awestruck by the sight they got from the train.

"Wow~" that was all that came out of them. They were listening to their music from their new headphones. The quality was pretty good. They also found out, they could change the frequency with the mp3s.

The twins and the other two stepped out the train and first rule in persona 3, when new transfer students arrive: gossip. People pointed at them, whispering about Luce's hair color and Chris' eye color.

"Dude, look at her. She's cute."

"Pink hair? Wow, looks pretty real."

"She's hot. I'm gonna ask her out."

Luce rolled her eyes. "Man, back at home we never had that kind of gossip going on." she muttered. She listened to the gossip of the girls.

"This eyes...it looks so cool."

"He looks like a demon..." the girl who said it shivered.

"Don't be ridiculous. He's probably just wearing lenses."

"This is my normal eye-color." Chris told the gossiping girls. "Same goes for her hair color." He pointed at his friend. They left the girl's not caring whether they believed him or not. The group entered the hall.

"The faculty office is that way. You need anything else?" Minako asked.

"A good coffee." Chris chuckled. "I slept for eleven days and am still tired."

The twins were about to leave, when the group noticed a little commotion. Three guys surrounded a girl with short green hair.

_Fuuka._

The two from earth knew she had been the victim of bullied, but now they noticed just how bad it was. Students just _ignored _what was going on.

"Hold me back Luce, I'm about to shock frost those punks." Chris growled, barely restraining himself from summoning his persona. "Kekeke, let's make our first impression a _good one._"

"For once I agree."

"What are you doing?" Minako asked, but the two were already ahead.

"You want this back? Then you better kneel down and call me ARRGH!" Punk number blondie was thrown against the wall, when two fists connected with his face.

"Still got it." the two attackers clapped each other's hand. A lunchbox had fallen onto the ground, which Chris picked up.

"Hey, watcha think you're doing?" Punk number black hair shouted. By now people started watching. Luce grinned wickedly "Rock, paper, NUTS!" and kicked him where it hurts a man the most. He lay down on the ground, clenching his most precious organ.

"10/10" Chris grinned. Punk number brown hair attacked, but Chris sidestepped and gave him a two hit combination, followed by a kick in the stomach. "And I complained about uncle's self-defense training." he mumbled. Now he was glad his uncle had been as strict as a drill sergeant.

Meanwhile the leader recovered and grabbed the yellow eyed boy from behind. Luce grabbed the guy on the hair and threw him at the wall with Chris.

"Sorry."

"No prob." Chris recovered faster and punched the guy in the face for good measures.

"What's going on!?"

_Not him. _The two thought as they recognized Ekoda's voice. The students around left immediately, leaving Fuuka, the twins, the punks and the otherworlders at the place.

"This yours?" Chris asked showing Fuuka the lunchbox. "Ohh..uh...yes. Thank you."

"You're all in detention!" he shouted.

"Now I know why you're the most hated teacher in school." Luce said out loud, so everyone could hear it. Fuuka put her hands before her mouth, gasping while Ekoda's face became red because of anger.

"Why you insolent-"

"Oh man, we gotta go to the faculty office." Chris said.

"Why? We still have 15 minutes." Luce pointed out. They totally ignored the rambling Ekoda.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" came a new voice everyone knew too well. "I should have known, it's freaking cold." Chris whispered to himself. The ice queen was approaching with the principal. "God, that guy is small." Luce whispered to herself. She was a head and a half taller than that guy.

"Mr. Ekoda, how can you put someone in detention without questioning the circumstances." It was more like Mitsuru was the principal, because she was the one talking. She glared ice-swords at the teacher.

"Those two have just protected this poor girl from the other three, isn't that right?"

_Crap, I forgot. _Chris thought. _Witnesses are nice and all, but if the victim herself is too scared to admit being bullied, we got no case. And in most cases they are._

"*sob* Y-yes." Everyone turned towards the girl. "Th-they d-do this e-every d-day..."

The pink haired transfer student hugged the girl. "Shh, shh, everything is fine."

"Why you-aaaaaaargggh!"

"What about the so called 'man's oath'?" Luce asked her best friend. "You DO know I never gave a crap about that one?"

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_Mitsuru POV_

It was just the first day and the two had already started a commotion, by doing the right thing. I didn't know what to do with them. For one, they managed to give a bullied girl the courage to speak up and stand her ground. But on the other hand, their method was not, let's say orthodox.

But in the end they were lucky, because the blond haired student from Europe, his name was Edward Wellington, had a switchblade with him.

His parents normally would save him from the mess like this, but not if it went after me. But right now, we were in the principal's office with the two troublemakers.

"I appreciate your enthusiasm, however, I cannot tolerate violence in my school." the principal said.

"But you tolerate a girl being bullied, her homeroom teacher not giving a crap?" Luce asked in return.

"I-I..."

Chris waved off. "Yeah, right, we heard everything. The guy's family is rich and all."

"Hammer, Doom, watch it."

"Shut it, ice queen." the two replied. I was taken aback. They insulted me in front of everyone present. They were either reckless or had a lot of courage.

"We don't care what happens to us-"  
"-we did the right thing. Besides-"  
"-we saw that guy threatening her (pointing at Yamagishi) with the knife."  
"How else should we have reacted-"  
"-knowing our opponent had a weapon?"

It was all a lie and I could see it in their eyes. Yet Yamagishi confirmed their story and I could tell she wasn't lying. Those two had more luck, than sanity, challenging the principal and me just like this. This or they really didn't care what happened to them. They would do everything to do the right thing.

""But still, that's no reason to go so overboard." Everyone looked at Mr. Ekoda and I felt some sp being channeled. I looked at the new recruits and they were barely able to hold themselves back.

"The suspect had a weapon!" I interrupted before the two summoned their personas. "They went 'overboard' as you put it, because you ignored your responsibility as a teacher!" Sometimes when I was angry I was able to summon my persona as well, my executions.

I could contain my anger for a very long time, until the opportunity was right or in other words, no one was watching.

"It is because of teachers like you our school is suffering in reputation!"

I heard a silent whistle. The teacher was silenced by my words, so I turned to the principal who had been doing nothing. I mentally shook my head. It really was no wonder our school had been suffering in reputation.

"Principal."

"Y-yes."

"We await your verdict." The two other said gazes hardened. I knew they wouldn't get away just like this, but I hoped they would get a simple scolding or a warning at most.

"W-well, under these circumstances, I think we all agree it was necessary. However I won't tolerate it a second time."

"Of course." the two bowed. "Thank you, principal." they said in union. Everyone blinked. Instead of being rebels, now they acted like responsible students.

"Y-yes, well, you two are dismissed. Go back to your lessons."

"Uhh..." the two looked troubled. "This is our first day here-"  
"-,so we don't know where to go."

**A/N: Pretty lame chapter if you ask me. I hope next one will be better.**


	4. Chapter 4

**4 Our first trip into hell**

_General POV_

"Yamagishi."

"H-hai, sempai!" exclaimed the flustered girl. "Please show them our school." she said and left. It sounded more like a demand, than a question. "P-please, follow me."

Since the three already missed the first lecture, they had the whole break time to get a tour. Fuuka was really shy and the two transfer students had to ask her to speak up more than one time. Overall where they get, students where whispering and pointed with their fingers at them.

"Looks like we got quite the reputation already. Must be because of your demonic eyes." Luce snickered at Chris. "I personally hoped they would help me to get people away from me."

Fuuka showed them where the club rooms were, the roof and the different classrooms. All in all the general layout of the school was like in the game. A few more rooms were accessible and the cafeteria was an actual hall plus the counter outside.

"Hey, Fuuka-sis, you mind showing us around Port Island later? We're still pretty new to that place." Chris explained to the green haired girl, who blushed madly. "I-I'm sorry, b-but I have to go home early today."

"Aw, too bad. Another time then." Luce said and put a hand on the other girl's shoulder. "Tell us if anyone bothers you. And don't be too shy to console a teacher, but not Ekoda."

The bell rang and the two made their way to the faculty office, while Fuuka returned to her class. The two left her with mixed feelings. Bullying didn't just stop because all of the sudden you had friends. They decided to check on her if the opportunity would make itself present.

"Ah, are you two the transfer students?" Touriumi-sensei found them in the hallway to the faculty office. "Yup." "That's us."

"Let's see, Chris Hammer and Luce van Doom?"

Luce groaned. "I should have signed up with a false last name." Chris petted her back with false pity. "Are you two from overseas?"

"Yup, America. Just got here a few days ago." he replied, still comforting his best friend with false pity. The girl finally looked up and shook her head. "And you're?"

"Oh, pardon me. I'm Ms. Touriumi, I teach composition. Let's go, we're late already." While they were walking. "Say are you coloring your hair? It looks pretty good." the teacher commented. The girl smiled. "It's natural. The same goes for his eye color."

"Gene defect." Chris came up, although he didn't know if it was even possible, but hey, who cares? Before the teacher could comment further, they reached the classroom and entered it. Exciting whispers greeted the group as they entered.

"Alright class, keep it down. We have yet another two transfer students. Why don't you two introduce yourselves?"

"Hey, I'm Luce van Doom." she gave a glare to anybody who dared to snicker. Chris could swear he saw her eyes glowing red for a split second.

"Doomsday is coming. Ow. Chris Hammer, before anyone asks I don't wear lenses-"  
"-and that's my natural hair color." Luce finished.

The class went into excited whisper again, calling Chris the child of a demon and how cute Luce looked. The two rolled their eyes on all the stuff they heard and sat down on seats in the left corner at the end of the classroom, trying to stay awake and to ignore the stares they got.

School wasn't that much different from what they were used to. It would take a while until they would adapt, but it should be fine.

The next hours were spent in listening / half sleeping like always, not to mention they didn't know shit what was taught to them.

Do you remember the math teacher? Well it was even worse for the two. The teacher didn't even know what she was doing, so how they were supposed to learn anything?

And finally after school

"That was horrible." the pink haired girl groaned. Ever had math with a teacher not knowing what he/she was doing? I had, the result? Shitty exams.

"You can say that again." Chris moaned. "I fell asleep for a few minutes back there."

"Really? You're one lucky guy. I tried so hard, but this constant babbling, oh god, just annoying."

"'Sup dudes."

The two looked up and found Junpei in front of their desks, grinning like the idiot he was at the moment.

"Can't belief he's into Goth girls." Chris said.

"What?"

"Well you know what they say: love knows no boundaries." Luce said, standing up. "Besides, I think hormones also have a part in it."

"Whaddya talking about?" he asked.

"Your future love." both replied and left him standing at their seats. "H-hey, wait!" But he already lost them. Just how can you lose someone with pink hair?

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_Minato POV_

We were all waiting at the lounge for this new recruit to arrive. Luce was drawing again and gave me all her Nyx drawings. For some reason I felt really attached to them. Minako and Chris were watching her drawing.

"And who's this supposed to be?" she asked. "Izanami, goddess of the fog." I focused on the Nyx drawing. Why was I so attached to that? I mean it looked good, but it was just a drawing. Even IF the goddess existed, which was not too farfetched, considering everything that happened, she didn't have to look this way.

Wow, I had a crush on a simple drawing that was a new one. Luckily I kept my blank expression, so no one noticed my crazy thoughts.

Suddenly someone opened the door: it was Akihiko-sempai. "Sorry it took us so long. Hey hurry up!"

"Hold your horses, this thing is freaking heavy."

We all looked up and I rolled my eyes. I knew this voice all too well. "Whazzup?" Junpei exclaimed. "NOTHING!" the two that saved my sis and me immediately replied and high fived each other like it was planned.

"J-Junpei!? What's he doing here?!"

"Isn't it obvious?"  
"He's a persona user."  
"The only reason he'd be here."

It was amazing how those two could say things that fast, like it was planned. But they couldn't plan those things ahead, not at the situations I'd seen them using their technique.

"HE has the potential, for real?" the pink fetish asked.

"I bumped into him the other night." Sempai explained. "He found me crying like a baby, but hey, I heard it happens to all of us."

"That girl" Chris began "I had to hold her back to hug a 'cute' shadow. We didn't have our personas at that time."

"They're sooooooooooo cute!"

"YOU WANTED TO HUG A RARE SHADOW OF THE DEATH ARCAN! WHAT'S CUTE ON DEATH?"

"YOU KNOW DEATH IS CUTE!"

"I give up. You're officially pedo."

"Death is not ten year old! He just looks that way!"

Minako and I exchanged looks with each other. We knew one boy on which that description fit. So the little guy in prison clothes was death himself? Interesting. The others shrugged their argument off as talking nonsense, everyone except Mitsuru. She was a smart girl. Well she wouldn't be the Kirijo heiress if she would be an idiot.

Mitsuru coughed a few times and their argument died down eventually. Mitsuru decided for another Tartarus exploration today, now that everyone, except Akihiko, could go. I went into my room to get some sleep before we would go.

I was about to hit the sack, when Minako came in, the only one allowed to disturb my sleep or disturb me at all in that matter. I was already lying on my bed, when she sat down beside me and checked my shoulder.

"Does it still hurt?" she asked with worry. I gave her a reassuring smile and shook my head. She let out a sigh of relief and placed her head on my chest. I got injured in the previous exploration, while blocking an attack from my sister.

I put my hand on her head and stroke through her hair in the process. She was the only one I had. Those social links? I'm not too sure what to think of them and I'm not exactly working on them so hard to get friends. I'm working on them to get stronger personas, so I can protect Minako.

I had been announced the field leader and it was my responsibility to keep everyone safe, but she was top priority.

She left me alone, because she wasn't the one to sleep all day. She had way too much energy for her own good and even if she was awake all day, she still had a bunch load of energy inside her. No use trying to keep her out of this business, she would just go alone.

I fell asleep in the next thirty minutes and had a weird dream. At first I only heard voices I couldn't identify.

_"You sure this is gonna work?"_

_"NOPE! But it's not like we have a choice, huh?"_

_I heard some sounds of someone working on something and someone typing something. "Editing videos is easier...done!"_

_I heard someone's phone ringing. The second voice spoke this time. "Heya boss, just finished the job! On the way, see ya outside."_

_"Crap, security is informed, let's move!"_

_It ended after this, I heard no more voices. But my vision cleared up instead. I was in a hospital room. Normally they all look the same to me, but this one looked familiar. Afterwards I would realize it could only be familiar, since dreams sometimes came out of your memory._

_I was a six year old again. That was right, I DID experience the dark hour beforehand, but later I thought it was just a dream. Kirijo did mention side effects after first experiences._

_My sister was sleeping in her bed with a worried expression and another girl was sitting beside her. She had long, shining black hair, blue eyes, like the kid in prison clothes and pale skin. She wore only a black dress and had two pairs of black angel wings attached on her back. (I got the description from Wikipedia XD)._

_She was smiling at me and motioning me to sit beside her. I did, like I was in trance or something._

"RISE AND SHINE!"

My dream was cut off, by none other, than my sister. Just as it was getting to the interesting part. For some reason I remembered all of it. Too bad, Tartarus was calling.

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_Luce POV_

First rule, when you know you'll use your gun, check it for any malfunctions. Ignoring Junpei's sudden exclamation, when I summoned my little friend, I did check and noticed I would have to clean it on regular bases.

I mentioned it to Chris and he started taking his gun apart while we were waiting in front of the school. "WHERE DID YA GET THESE GUNS!?" he exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes. "Part of our powers and even WE don't know how we got them. It just worked one day, kay? NOW SHUT UP! Do you know complicated it is to put this thing back together?!"

Well not THAT complicated, I just didn't want to make a mistake. I may be careless at times, but Chris' uncle literally drilled into us to keep focused and be careful when handling guns. He used to say a gun represents the one who uses it. Think of it as your persona, that's what he meant, I think.

We were just finished putting the guns back together, when the everything started shaking and Tartarus got off from the ground.

"What the hell IS this?!"

"Hell in Greek mythology." Chris said already moving in. I skipped next to him and the two of us entered the tower first. It still looked awesome.

"Wow, it's just as cool on the inside." Junpei said his line.

"So, who was the leader last time?" Chris asked.

"I was." Minato of answered. I was a little surprised, I expected Minako to be the leader, since she was more talkative, but oh well.

"Do you want to be the leader?" he asked.

"HELL NO!" the two of us replied. We were more partners, but definitely not the leader type. Working together, almost using mind reading ability, no prob as long as it was only us. But none of us was able to make difficult decisions if it involved others. Chris was too careful and I was too reckless.

Minato raised an eyebrow at our exclamation, but shrugged it off. "Wait, he's the leader?! He doesn't look like one."

"Neither do you." the two of us deadpanned. "Hey Mina-bro, since you're the leader, do you want to change our mantras?" I asked.

He looked at me confused for a second, but then understood. "Let me look at them."

Minako meanwhile gave a quick explanation to Junpei about our powers and to tell he was jealous was an understatement.

"Bloody hell, why's Fire Spirit complete!?" Chris exclaimed. I gasped. This was SO NOT GOOD! Why? First we were knocked out, we shouldn't have absorbed anything! Second if we absorbed the Arcana Shadow, then...

Can you put it together? Good.

Minato didn't saw the problem and I quickly explained our personas shouldn't have absorbed anything, since we were unconscious. We quickly came up it was because the shadow was out of the ordinary.

"So, anything you like?" I asked.

...

"I want you to to take Shura (Body Rush; Mad Rush), so you have a little more offensive skills. Chris, show me yours.

...

Take Protection. The more healer the better."

He even paid for it!

"Hmm, we should cover all elements. I want you two to use devour as much as possible. How much can you use it, until it doesn't work?"

Just as he asked the information flooded into our minds. "We're gonna feel it. There's a skill called iron stomach, but...where was it?"

"Esoteric 2." Chris helped me. He knew the first part of the mantra grid inside out and the rest he knew where which kind of spells were approximately.

"Iron stomach, allows us to get more shadows. But we'd prefer Esoteric 1 Mutual Karma. If one of us is outside of the battle we still get the same amount of atma."

Minato nodded. "After we got the elements covered." He was really talkative when it came to this kind of stuff.

"Here, take those." Mitsuru handed us communicators. "That's right!" I exclaimed and took out my mp3 and my headphones. Chris slapped himself and did the same.

"So what's the frequency?" I asked.

Of course Mitsuru DEMANDED an explanation from us, but Chris had an argument. "Forgotten? We only joined up, when you don't ask about our past. These things fall under that category."

She was frustrated, but let it go to my surprise. Though I had a feeling it would bite us back someday. Oh well more fun for us.

We finally entered hell itself and too our surprise it was pretty spacious, yet still aMAZing. Get it maze and-

Forget it.

Minato positioned us to the side. I just hoped I wouldn't shoot him accidentally. "Minato, you mind we try our devouring skills on the next best shadows? I got an idea."

He nodded.

We climbed up the stairs to the third floor, when we were attacked by two cowardly mayas and two muttering tiaras. The mayas were weak against fire and the tiaras against ice. I always remember the first enemies.

"Okay, do it." Minato ordered. Wow he sounded really bossy.

"PERSONA!" the two of us summoned our personas. Chris used agi on the mayas and I bufu on the tiaras. Everyone was down.

"Here's our chance. Let's get 'em!"

"No, they get them!"

"Here goes!" Chris used devour on the first maya and as we thought it did more damage, than it should (in DDS you need to get the enemies in a special status you don't have in persona. I use down instead) As Varna used his blade that came out of his arm, he snatched the shadow, which turned into a red-orange ball of light and flew into his mouth. I did the same on the other maya and next we shared the tiaras, just in time. They were about to get up.

"Oh man...I'm stuffed." I said and petted my belly. I really was stuffed, like I had really eaten them. "Uuhhh, I shouldn't have eaten before the exploration." Chris said. "I don't get more down today." he said. Yukari was about to gross out at his statement.

"Yeah, same for me. Let's go with the all out attacks for the rest of the day."

Minato nodded. "Are you alright?"

"I'm better already." Chris said. "Just ate too fast."

"Oh man, don't mention it."

Junpei and Yukari really did gross themselves out. I was perfectly fine and Chris? Well he was a little taken, but kept his face.

The next time we encountered shadows, we let Junpei show of his skills, which was not much, since he only had one physical attack. Yukari already had Garu.

"So far, Chris and I relied more on our weapons. Junpei got a little pissed when we took out most of the shadows, due to our long ranged weapons and charged ahead one time. It was a grave beetle and thanks to his war cry the shadow was alarmed and used its oversized horn to throw him to the next wall.

"Homerun!" I couldn't help it.

"It's weak against wind!" we heard Mitsuru through intercom. Yukari quickly knocked it out and the 5 of us (Junpei was out) performed an all out attack. I suppressed a laugh, when I saw the skull smoke rising.

"That was fast, sempai." Minako commented. "You weren't that fast last time we went exploring."

"Yes, well...it seems thanks to van Doom's analyzing ability. I can use it in order to improve my abilities. I see things much clearer than normally."

"Double win." I commented.

Minato used a revival bead on Junpei. When he stood up, he looked ashamed to the ground. Our leader smacked his head and ordered us to go on.

"Something is different on this floor. I sense shadows, but...they're different."

"A guardian floor." I said. "You know?!"

"Uff, okay Mitsu-sis, I tell you ONE thing. This isn't the first dungeon we're in. Guardian floors are pretty safe. There should be a teleporter around here somewhere that brings us back. The shadow you sense are guardians and stronger than normal shadows. They can't be analyzed, but maybe with our combined power we'll get something. So leader, approaching? Pausing? Retreating?" I asked.

"Little pause. Let's get back and use the clock to patch us up."

A green light surrounded us and from one second to another we were in the lobby again. While Minato went to the clock, I checked something.

"Hey Mina-bro! My mantra is complete. What do you want now?"

"Same here."

He took a look.

I had now: Bufu; Void Ice; Devour; Ingest Mana; Dia; Analyze; Body Rush and Mad Rush. Patra was unequipped, since Yukari had this skill.

"Luce Bolt Wizard (Zio; Void Elec). Chris Dragon (Zan; Void Force). When you're finished take the exact thing I told the other one."

We nodded. Again he paid. I made a mental note to make it up later.

"Let's go!" he shouted. I grinned. The Venus Eagles were as good as finished!

Back on the floor, Minato gave us orders. "Luce, Chris, Yukari, take them on from the distance. Junpei, Minako and I will wait until they come closer.

"3, 2, 1...NOW!"

"IT'S BULLET TIME!"

We shot until our magazines got empty. To everyone else's surprise the shadows stayed down. "Yukari keep shooting!" Minato shouted. "You two-"

"RELOADED!" We announced and shot. Since this was the weakness of the first guardians, this was an easy fight and an easy day. It would be harder later, that much I knew.


	5. Chapter 5

**5\. The Art Project**

_Chris POV_

"Damn my finger..." I muttered to myself 'stretching said finger, while we all exited Tartarus. I never shot that insanely. Half of my shots missed completely. Luce and I had some sort of contest who reloads quicker until Minato gave us a smack on the head yelling at us to focus.

That guy got really talkative during our exploration, but now he was all silent again. Guess he only talked when necessary.

"I'm hungry~"

"AGAIN!?" I shouted. Seriously we each devoured two shadows, I was now convinced they were actually in our stomachs *shiver*, and she was hungry again. Was this a side effect of our new power? Sure I ate more the last day, but not excessively more.

We walked out of Tartarus and towards the train station while it was still the dark hour. The rest seemed about to break down, but Luce and I were fine, as if the dark hour had no effect on us, which could only be explained by us being from another world.

The Mina-twins were listening to their music (after the dark hour ended) and I decided to do the same. Why having an mp3 and not using it? I switched through the albums until I found something slow paced and turned it on.

I almost fell asleep during the train ride. Aside from us, there was just one other girl in the train, wearing a Gekkoukan uniform. Strange, what was she doing at this time in this train? Meh, I got a lot of possibilities within a few seconds. None of my business anyway.

The other's noticed her too, everyone gave the girl a glance now and then, but no one spoke with her and she seemed to ignore us. She had black hair, which reached her elbows, had skin as if she was ten years in prison and black eyes. Looks like strange colors are common within the persona world.

I resumed in listening to my music. Seeing the battery already half down, I was reminded I needed a new charger since the old one was at home, which brought me to another problem: money. I got a few bills from our exploration, but that was hardly enough for anything but fast food.

"I need a part time job." I concluded, meaning I needed papers, meaning I had to talk to the ice queen. Sighing I turned my music off and replaced myself next to her. "Is something the matter?" she asked.

"Well, I realized I need a part time job, but...uh yes, I don't have any papers. Could you...like...arrange something?" I asked a bit timid.

She smiled a little for whatever reason and nodded. "I'll give you the papers tomorrow evening."

"Already?" I asked.

"I needed to forge some papers for you to enroll school after all."

"Oh...right. Sorry, guess my brain is not in the mood of working."

I got back to my original place with Luce in front of me. She was looking outside the window, deep in thought, which happened rarely, but if she did, it was a serious matter. "What's up?" I asked.

"...The only way to defeat Nyx is seal her away, right?"

"Since she's the mother of death, I guess. Wanna sacrifice our souls?"

"If we ran out of ideas. We're never getting home anyways, so might as well throw one big party and bam!"

She put her fist into her palm. "And how are we doing it, considering we ran out of ideas?"

"We threaten Igor."

"Right...*sweatdrops*"

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The next day everyone else was either in zombie mode or in bed. Luce and I noticed the dark hour had no effect on us. Sure we were tired for getting into bed that late, but we didn't feel like we just ran a marathon.

Akihiko was already out and Mitsuru was going after I went down. I made myself some coffee (I only drink one cup a day) and prepared some toast. Luce came down five minutes later and after breakfast we headed out pretty early, but still saw Minato falling down the stairs. Zombie.

We arrived early at Gekkoukan, when fewer students were around and found Fuuka at the front gate.

"Hey Fuuka-sis!" Luce shouted and ran ahead. I smiled and closed up.

"Oh...uh...good morning Luce-san, Chris-san."

"Drop the san." we chorused. She blushed. Oh god, what's wrong with that girl? "Hey, can you show us around today?" Luce asked the REALLY shy girl. I suppressed a chuckle at how she acted all flustered and all.

"Oh..umm...y-yes. I think I can."

"Cool!" my friend cheered. I rolled my eyes.

"So, how's it going?" I asked.

We tried the whole time to make small talk with her, but I guess she doesn't warm up that fast. Well most of the time we talked over trivial things, sometimes asked her opinion, so she wouldn't get the feeling she was left out.

"Remember the time our pc melted?" Luce asked.

"Don't remind of that one. Wasn't that the time we had the webcams of our laptops on, recorded everything and posted it, instead of the actual episode?"

We laughed at the memory. We almost set the house on fire that time. "Why did it melt anyways?" Luce asked. "That was...I think the cooler broke. Or was it because of an open cable? I forgot." I shrugged and turned to Fuuka. "Fun fact of the week, before we arrived here there was a real fire at our place and now we got nothing, but the clothes we brought to Japan."

"Oh...I'm sorry to hear it..." she said.

"Don't worry about it." I assured her. The first bell rang. "Oh we need to go to the auditorium. They're announcing the new student council president." Fuuka pointed out.

"Totally forgot." I slapped my forehead. "Guess we better go."

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I didn't bother listening to any of this, especially not Mitsuru's speech. I heard it often enough and probably know it better than Mitsuru herself. My head leaned against my fist, Fuuka next to me listened intently and Luce was actually listening to her music. Didn't she bother her battery? Oh who am I asking, I know it best.

The little money we got from Tartraus wasn't enough to buy a recharger, we needed a job. I'd probably work at a café again, like I did back at home. The only thing that really bothers me about that kind of job is the amount of cleaning you have to do.

I almost missed the time to clap and I really only did it out of politeness.

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_General POV_

"I swear I fell asleep three times in his so called lecture." Chris groaned, while he, Fuuka and Luce walked out of the school building. He was rambling about Ekoda's class.

"You didn't miss anything. He was more raging about lazy students, than doing actual lecture. I would kill him, if it wouldn't be illegal."

"When did that stop you?"

The two laughed.

"Seriously Fuuka, how can you wake up every day, knowing you got a douchebag as a teacher?" Chris asked the girl who 'oh...oh-ed' again at his bluntness.

"I...uhh...well...I think...he's not the best, but..."

_Oh Fuuka. _Her two companions thought, but that was the personality of a High Priestess.

At the front gates they found the rest of junior SEES watching Akihiko getting pestered by his fangirls. "Wow, Japan sure is full of crazy people." Chris commented as they approached the others. "What, jealous?" Minako teased.

"Nope, the only interest I have in these kind of girls is devouring them to unlock some new mantras." Since Fuuka didn't know what he meant, he didn't bother. "Get rid of some pest and get some new mantras. Double win, wouldn't you guys agree?" Luce asked.

Before anyone could comment how sick their thoughts were, Akihiko noticed them. "Hey are you guys free this afternoon?" he asked. "Nope, we already got plans. We go?" Chris asked Luce and Fuuka, who was standing a bit away from the group.

"W-wait, you serious!? You don't wanna hang out with THE Akihiko Sanada?!" Junpei asked.

"We see him every day at the dorm, that's enough for me." Chris said.

"I'm not interested into weak protein junkies." Luce teased the boxer on purpose. "What did you say?!" he was now in front of her and she grinned wickedly. "How about we have a little contest when your injury is healed. Deal?" she held out her hand and Akihiko shook it immediately.

"Deal."

Chris laughed his ass off. "You fell right for her trap."

"Trap?" the boxer asked.

"We're going to box." Luce declared.

Multiple what's could be heard from people around them, especially the fangirls. "You're not chickening out, are you?" Luce asked. Laughing, she and Chris took Fuuka and walked away, leaving Akihiko in his dilemma. He could both chicken out and let his reputation suffer or fight and let his reputation suffer. Well he didn't bother his reputation it was more his pride as a fighter he was concerned about.

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_Minako POV_

It was hilarious seeing Akihiko-sempai's face after the two Varna-users left with the girl with the green hair. She seemed pretty shy and had been standing at the sideline the whole time.

Sempai introduced us to a police officer who was selling weapons or sharp and pointy stuff as Luce called it (later back at the dorm). We even got some money from Ikutsuki-san. Junpei bought himself a sharp katana, while I and onii-chan bought us some armor.

Afterwards Jupei headed out to game panic to spend the rest of the money he got. Minato and I saved our money for weapons which were a little more expensive. We sold some weapons (fake blades) we found at Tartarus, but it still wasn't enough.

We left and just walked around our old hometown to get some fresh air. I didn't remember it well and so we explored a few parts of the city. None of us remembered anything about how live was before our parents died.

I was not paying attention in my tracks and so I bumped into someone. "Ow...I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention." I helped the girl up I knocked down. It was the one from the train ride the other day.

"It's fine." she said. She sounded like she didn't care, but took my hand either way. "Hey, you're in Gekkoukan too. Which class?" I asked.

"2-E, Ekoda's." she didn't sound too happy about it and I could hardly blame. "I'm in 2-F. Tourimi. By the way I'm Minako, Minako Arisato. This here is my all so talkative brother Minato." He nodded in response. The girl chuckled.

"I'm Arisu (Alice in Japanese) Cho (butterfly; not sure if it is an actual last name, but I don't care). Nice to meet you two." she replied.

"Are you heading anywhere?" I asked. She nodded. "Back to my little shop."

"You have an own shop?!" I asked baffled. She nodded. "It belonged to my parents, before they passed away 10 years ago during an accident on the moonlight bridge."

I couldn't suppress a gasp and put both hands in front of my mouth. "T-ten years ago?" I asked. She nodded. "Is something the matter?"

"That's when our parents died." Minato spoke all of the sudden. He never spoke about our parents' death, it took me a while to recover. Maybe it was because we found someone similar to us. "Would you like to come for tea?" she asked. We both nodded and followed her.

She owned a little art shop with all kinds of stuff: paintings, drawings, little sculpture and so on. "Wow, you make all this?" I asked awe struck. She shook her head. "Not everything. Sometimes I buy something and sell it again or sometimes I have people making things for me. I also make all kinds of stuff for people. Do you want a drawing of yourselves?" she asked. "Okay." I chirped. Minato nodded too.

Arisu walked through a door behind the counter and came back five minutes later with three cups of tea. She motioned for me to sit down on a chair in a corner. Minato placed himself next to me. Arisu was in front of us and started drawing.

"Your parents were caught too in the accident?" she asked while she started drawing. I let out a sigh. "Yeah, it was our birthday actually." I told her.

"Sorry for asking."

"No, no problem. So you lived here all alone?"

She nodded. "I'm officially an orphan, but most of the time I live alone here. Over the years I kept an eye on the shop. Since the entire building belonged to my parents I didn't had to bother about monthly rents. Last year when I started high school, I started paying for the water and electricity again. I went out of the orphanage and live all by myself here."

"Wow."

"What about you?" she asked.

"Oh well, we were shoved around from relative to relative. No one really wanted us for long. Two years ago we ended up in an orphanage and then a few weeks ago we got a scholarship for Gekkoukan. We don't remember anything before the accident for some reason."

She looked up from her drawing and took a sip of her tea. "I see."

From now on we continued small talk until Arisu was finished and gave it to us. Minato wanted to put it in his block, when one of Luce's drawings fell out. Arisu picked it up and looked at it. "You draw too?" she asked. He shook his head. I looked at it.

"A friend of ours draw this. She called the figure Nyx, queen of the night." It was the first drawing Minato received from Luce. "This is very good. Maybe you can introduce me to your friend?"

"Sure." I replied. But then I stopped in my tracks. "That's right. We don't have their cell numbers. And I don't know when they'll get back to the dorm. I'll ask when I see them again."

"Them?"

"Oh only one of them draws, but the two are always together." I explained. She nodded.

"Your drawing is pretty good." I commented. "How much?" I asked. She waved off. "You can have it for free. If you visit me from time to time, it will be enough."

"Are you sure?" I asked. She nodded.

We spent time drinking tea and making small talk, until suddenly my brother stared into space, meaning he got a social link. Strange, why didn't I get one? When I asked him later it turned out to be death and I already made a small death bond with the kid, when I actually helped him remembering he was death and it had been in my dream!

At one point Arisu let out a sigh. "Looks like today are no customers either. No customers in two weeks, this is bad. I don't have the time in selling my stuff outside."

"Is there any way we can help?" I asked. Before she replied, the door to the shop opened and three people went in: Luce, Chris and the girl with green hair.

"Wow~ we should open a shop like this ourselves." the pink haired girl cheered. "We don't even have the money to buy chargers for our mp3s and you're talking about opening a shop?" Chris asked in his personal deadpan matter.

"Oh hi guys." they finally noticed us.

After a quick introduction, we told Luce that Arisu is interested in her drawings. "Really? Awww, I'm getting all red!"

Arisu let out a sigh. "I wish I could afford to buy them, but at this rate I'll have to close up this shop."

"Sucks." Chris commented. "This shop is nice, but we're short on money ourselves. Do you have an internet site?" he asked.

"No, but my biggest problem is not being able to sell out of the school time."

"I have an idea." Chris said. "Hehe, the manager getting out of you?" Luce asked.

I raised my eyebrow curiously. "Luce and I can sell some stuff outside from this shop. Nothing against it, but it isn't placed where people normally go. Instead of buying a server we could open up something on facebook."

"None of us ever had facebook." Luce pointed out. "We have our reasons." she replied at all of our questioning looks.

"Hey Fuuka-sis."

"H-hai!"

"Calm down." Chris chuckled. "You know a lot about pc and stuff. Can you help us with the facebook page?"

"Oh..umm y-yes, no problem." Chris nodded. "Good. Anyone has a good camera?"

"I have." I declared.

"Good, we need some good shots of this store and of some of the artwork of course. I heard our school got its own forum of sorts. Once I get my own profile, I upload some pictures and mention this shop. We also should make a video. Luce and I have the most experience in video editing, we'll think of something."

"W-wait." Arisu spoke up. "You don't have to do this, I'm sure everything will be fine."

Chris waved off. "I have nothing better to do anyways. Besides I always wanted to manage a shop."

"Wow...I honestly don't know what to say."

"Then let's stop talking and start doing things!" Luce cheered.

Fuuka had her laptop with her and started creating the page. Minato and I went back to the dorm, to get our camera and came back. Luce and Chris were talking to Arisu over a map. "Luce will cover the strip mall and I the other mall. Okay, which of these do we take with us?"

All in all it was a lot of fun. Of course we didn't finish it all in one day, but with everyone working together we came really far. We said our goodbyes to Arisu and promised to come again the next day.

Arisu was kind of like Minato, only she talked and was not used in having such a large crowd as company. I think we did something to her psyche as we all worked on our little project. Fuuka promised the facebook site would stand the next day. Luce was already drawing again, only with more passion. After Chris received some papers, he made some notes and thought of ways to make the little shop more popular.

Minato and I told Mitsuru about our project, as she was looking at Chris suspiciously, as he looked on the town map and made notes about places where we could make up little stands and sell a few things.

"We need to ask for permission of course. I don't know much about Japanese law, but better safe than sorry. I'm gonna ask tomorrow at the city hall, so don't bother if I come a little later."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: At least someone decided to give his opinion on this story xd. I guess I shouldn't expect too much, unlike my cuz I'm still new at the side. About my humor, it's also my cuz' fault. He totally corrupted me.**

**Add: Sorry it took me so long to update. Was in hospital. A bit shorter chapter, since I still need a little recovery.**

**6\. A snowman in need**

_Minato POV_

_She motioned me to sit beside her. I complied, more or less, my legs were moving on their own. I sat right next to her and looked her, while she looked at my peaceful sleeping sister. She eventually looked at me with her deep blue eyes, like she was looking for something inside me._

_I flinched, although she was smiling at me. I felt uncomfortable being under her gaze like this for some reason. As she wanted to put a hand on my sister, I stopped her on instinct. She looked at my hand grabbing her wrist. She looked at me again with her innocent smile. I felt like I was being threatened with a knife and let go of her wrist._

_Why was I so scared of her? She only smiled at me and made me uneasy._

_She put a hand on my sister's head and started stroking through her hair. I was about to stop her again, when one of her wings came around my shoulder, as if it was hugging me. Her wing now in front of me, I couldn't help, but slowly stroke through her feathers._

I woke up, my head spinning. Classes just ended for today and we were supposed to meet at the school gates. "Had a good sleep?" Minako asked.

Well, I wasn't really sure what to think of those strange dreams. If they continue on like this, than it means they could have a deeper meaning. This or I was officially going nuts.

We met Fuuka, Arisu, Luce and Chris at the gate. "Hey, how was your day?" Minako asked the two from 2-E. Arisu let out a groan. "School is school." she simply said. Minako giggled.

"I finished the side yesterday." Fuuka said as shy as ever. "Great!" Luce cheered, making the girl blush yet again. I wondered how her face wasn't cooking from the amount of times she was blushing.

"Alright, I'm off to the town hall. Catch ya, later." However, before Chris could go very far, he was approached by a group of girls I didn't recognize. "Who are they?" Luce asked to no one in particular.

"They're...from my class." Fuuka said.

I focused on the group a little ahead of us. A girl with brown skin approached Chris and spoke up loud enough for us to hear every single word.

"Can I help you?" he asked, a little annoyed.

The girl's giggled.

"Maybe." one of them said cryptically with a seductive smile on her face. "How about you hang out with us, instead of those loosers?"

Luce cracked her knuckles. Arisu put a hand on her shoulder. "They're always like this. Just ignore them."

"First:" Chris spoke up "I prefer to stay a virgin over getting AIDS." All of us stood there baffled. He didn't really say that, did he? Judging from the faces of the rest he did. But I never thought he'd be a virgin. With those eyes you'd get every girl into bed.

"Second, I bet Fuuka is ten times better in bed, than you all together."

There was a silence, as he left the girls, who looked more than just offended. Five seconds later Luce erupted into laughter, falling to the ground, holding her stomach. She reminded me more of a hyena at the moment.

I looked over to Fuuka, who looked like she'd been struck by lightning. "We better go. They're looking over to us." Minako whispered and silently, with the exception of Luce, we all left for the train station.

30 minutes later we were all in Arisu's little store.

"That was hilarious." Luce still snickered about what happened at the school gate. She looked over to Fuuka, a teasing smile on her face. "Looks like you have a secret lover."

Fuuka flushed and looked away. The pink haired girl laughed and petted the green haired girl on the back. "Kidding, kidding. Come on, show us the side already."

Fuuka had done a great job. She had divided everything into different categories: statues, regular paintings etc. The side already had a bunch of likes and the people comments on the stuff Arisu sold here were pretty good.

While we waited for Chris to return, Arisu made us some tea and even some customers arrived. I at least recognized one from his facebook picture.

The moment Chris arrived, Arisu was handling a married couple. Having nothing better to do, even Minako, Fuuka and I tried to draw some stuff, Arisu giving us tips here and there. Luce meanwhile tried for the first time the canvas.

"Alrighty." Chris announced. "You need to go there personally to ask for permission, but all in all it should work. Just we can't be there 24/7." Chris explained. The store owner nodded and returned to the couple.

Chris placed himself next to Fuuka, who flushed yet again. "Hey, sorry about earlier. Just slipped my tongue, I guess...hehe." Now he was getting red himself.

"Oh...well I-I didn't mind. I-I-I mean...!"

This was too good, I couldn't focus on my drawing. "I guess we better shut up, before we say things, we'll regret." the yellow eyed boy stated as a matter of fact. "Y-yes. I-it might be better."

In the background Luce awed. "Say. One. Word. And.-"

"Easy there, tiger. My lips are sealed." She made a zipping motion over her mouth. It was way too obvious what they had been talking about.

Arisu meanwhile opened the old cashbox and put the money inside. Three paintings less. It had been one about a sunset, the other was dawn and the last a simple blue sky. I didn't get what they like about those paintings. They were way too simple in my personal opinion.

I frowned. It just wasn't working.

"Having trouble?" Arisu asked looking down at my little scribble. "Here, let me help you." She had a unique way of showing people how to draw. She took my hand and helped me with the movements.

"An angel?" she asked me. I had been drawing the girl from my dreams. With Arisu's help, I saw her now in front of me. It gave me the creeps, yet I still drew her. Why?

"Oh yeah, I THINK I saw Philemon today."

Luce stopped immediately in her tracks and looked at her best friend, her face all harden up. "You serious?"

Chris shrugged. "Only for a moment, could have been my imagination."

"I think the two of us know enough about personas to know this was not your imagination."

Now the two got my sister's and my own attention. "We're NOT going to fight him! At least not yet." He said sternly. "I got care how strong that bastard is. I'll give him a piece of my mind anyway. You know exactly why."

Chris let out a sigh. "You can't wait, huh? Just don't do anything stupid. Wouldn't help anyone if you'd...ya know."

The pink haired girl tch-ed. "I'm going for a walk." she announced, leaving the store. "Damn it, I'm as angry as you're, but fighting him now won't do anyone any good."

No one asked a question about what they talked about. From one second to another, their mood changed drastically. We'd never seen Luce so angry. Even when she beat up the bullies together with Chris, she'd more enjoyed the opportunity. Whoever this Philemon was, he was related to personas and did something to the two.

Luce returned 15 minutes, in a good mood again. She acted like nothing happened and her good mood was kind of addicting. No one wanted the girl to be angry again. The rest of the day was uneventful, here and there customers coming. At the end of the day, we all came together.

"I expect you two one hour after school." Arisu said to her two new employees who high fived each other. "Thanks, you saved our asses." Luce grinned.

"Congrats." Minako said.

"I'm happy for you two." Fuuka said, although she looked a little sad. "The rest of you are free to come, whenever you want." the shop owner said. "Maybe I can teach you some stuff."

There were multiple thanks from all of us. "No, I have to thank you guys. I totally forgot how it is to have friends." she said smiling. For some reason, even I smiled back.

Arisu walked with us back, saying she needed to get some things from the grocery store.

"Who's this Philemon guy?" asked Arisu out of the blue. Luce tensed up and her hand turned into a fist. "It's personal." Chris replied. "Please don't ask. He pissed us off, that's all you need to know for now."

So much for information. I put a hand on my sister's shoulder, telling her to not press any further.

By pure chance we came across the cemetery. I tried to shrug off the upcoming memories, when we suddenly heard some noise coming from it.

"This reminds me too much of a video game." Chris muttered. There was another noise, this time louder. "Wh-what is this?" stuttered Fuuka. "Let's check it out." Luce was already running ahead. "KYAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Da fuq?" Chris titled his head and ran after her. We followed him deeper inside and found the source of the entire noise. There were three guys with Molotov Cocktails and what looked like a Jack Frost Doll lying on the ground.

It was moving and slowly got up.

"Hee...hoo..."

It talked!

"Just a little more!" shouted one of the guys.

"Stupid demon! We'll show you what humans are capable of!" shouted another one.

"A demon? Is this for real?" asked Arisu.

"What should we do?" asked Fuuka.

"HEY YOU JERKS!" there was her answer. Luce ran over and Chris followed suit.

"Huh..? Get outta the way kid!"

"What did this Jack Frost do to you?" asked Chris in a calm manner.

"It's a demon! Don't you see it? It may look cute, but-"

"PERSONA!"

They did it. I was kind of expecting this, but I was taken by surprise anyways. Their personas shot ice spikes towards the humans, injuring legs and arms.

"AAARGH!" Multiple cries could be heard.

"You just wanna kill him, 'cause he's a demon!?" Luce shouted, summoning her gun.

"You're nothing more but scum!" Chris summoned his own gun and the pointed their weapons towards the group.

"What are you?!"

"They must be demons in disguise!"

"If you don't wanna end up as switcher cheese-"  
"-you better make a run for it!"

To underline their point, they shot each a few times, barely missing their targets. The group ran as fast as they could. Luce and Chris dismissed their guns and used dia on the demon. Curiously I walked over to them.

"You okay, little guy?" asked Chris.

"Thank...you...hoo."

"Awww, so CUTE~!" Luce cheered in a high pitched voice and hugged the demon. She let go of him after a few seconds and bent down to his level. "So, what is a cutie pie like you doing here? Demons aren't supposed to be in the human world."

The Jack Frost lowered its head. "I...hoo...I played hide and seek hoo. I went somewhere forbidden hoo and I..."

"You ended up here." Chris concluded. "And I guess you don't know the way back." he said scratching the back of his head.

"Hee do, but I...when I wanted to open a portal, I hee...the humans hoo..." it started crying and Luce comforted the demon, like it was a child. "Aww, don't worry. You can open one now, right?"

"I...hoo...am exhausted *sob* WAAHHH!"

"So that means he doesn't have the energy." Chris rubbed his chin, thinking. "Can you absorb energy from us?" he asked. The demon looked up from Luce's shoulder. "If hee were demons, you could help hoo."

Luce's eyes lit up. "Well our personas use the power of the demon virus! Could that be enough?!"

"Hee...?"

Suddenly we heard voices.

"Crap, we better get outta. Tell the rest we're going to be late." The two ran off with the demon in Luce's arms.

We ourselves walked out of the cemetery. In all the chaos, we totally forgot Arisu and Fuuka had been with us the entire time. Fuuka seemed frightened, while Arisu kept her face.

"I knew they were strange, but this." Arisu shook her head. "Did any of you know?" she asked. Minako sheepishly scratched her head. "About the guns and personas, but not demons."

"Hmm..." Arisu closed her eyes. "I think we all agree we should keep this to ourselves until we hear and explanation. I sure hope you can give us one tomorrow."

Minako and I sweatdropped. "Don't worry, I'm not mad or anything. I guess something like this is not something that can be easily explained."

"Thanks." Minako replied. "We'll tell you tomorrow, 'kay? Hmm? Are you alright Fuuka-chan?" My sister asked the obviously terrified girl.

"I'll take her home." Arisu left with Fuuka.

Minako and I gave each other a look. "I didn't expect this, when we returned home." she said and I nodded.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Luce POV_

"We sure got ourselves into quite the mess." I said and Chris nodded in return. Basically the story of the poor Jackie went on like this. He was playing hide and seek with his demon friends, but they played in an area their parents forbid them to play.

As it turned out, there were closed portals which lead to the human world, but no one could predict when one would open itself again, because for ten years the wall separating the human and demon realm had been a little instable.

We fled inside an old warehouse, where little Jack explained to us how to open a portal. Actually he was opening it, while Chris and I had our personas summoned, spiritual energy floating into the demon.

A long time nothing happened until black lightning struck in front of us, building up to an energy cluster until it was a black-violet whole.

"Thank you so much hoo! This is for you hoo! Goodbye!"

"Hee-hoo!" we replied as the demon got back home through the portal. It left us a ring on the ground. Before any of us could pick it up, we collapsed on the ground from exhaustion. "Man...that was something else."

I nodded. I walked over and picked up the ring. Suddenly we heard the sound of someone clapping. We jerked around and found none other, than the infamous Philemon before us. My blood began to boil and I summoned my gun immediately.

This guy was the reason I'd never ever see my family again! He was so dead, I'd make sure of that.

"Luce stop!"

Before Chris could stop me, I already started shooting and summoned my persona. Philemon shrugged my attacks off as if they were nothing and just patiently waited for me to stop. After ten minutes I collapsed to the ground from exhaustion.


End file.
